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"My grandmere was a traiteur, better than any doctor," I said.
"Traiteur?"
"Cajun faith healer," Beau explained.
Monsieur Polk nodded and shifted his eyes toward me and stared a moment. Then he sat forward and clasped his hands on his desk.
"We'll move quickly for a custody hearing. It will be conducted like a trial in this situation. The first order of business will be to find a legal way to establish you as Ruby. Once that is accomplished, you will testify to being the father of your child, which you will own up to," he said to Beau.
"Of course." Beau squeezed my hand and smiled.
"Now let's look at the face of this," Monsieur Polk said. He reached over to a dark cherry wood cigar box and flicked up the cove
r to pluck a fat Havana cigar out of it. "You," he said, pointing at me with the cigar, "and your twin sister, Gisselle, were apparently so identical in looks, you could pull off this switch of identities, correct?"
"Down to the dimples in their cheeks," Beau said. "Eye color, hair color, complexion, height, weight?"
Monsieur Polk listed. Beau and I nodded after each item. "There might have been a few pounds difference between them, but nothing very
noticeable," Beau said.
"Scars?" Monsieur Polk asked, raising his eyebrows hopefully.
I shook my head.
"I have none and my sister had none, even though she was in a bad car accident and was crippled for a time," I said.
"Bad car accident?" I nodded. "Here in New Orleans?"
"Yes."
"Then she was in the hospital for a time. Good. There'll be a medical history with records about her blood. Maybe you two had a different blood type. If so, that would settle it immediately. A friend of mine," he continued, taking out his lighter, "tells me that in years to come, from blood tests, using DNA, they'll be able to identify who is the parent of a child. But we're a number of years away from that."
"And by then it would be too late!" I complained. He nodded and lit his cigar, leaning back to blow the puffs of smoke toward the ceiling.
"Maybe some X rays were taken. Did she break any bones in the accident?"
"No," I said. "She was bruised and the shock of it did something to her spine, affecting the nerves, but that healed and she was able to walk again."
"Um," Miinsieur Polk said. "I don't know if there would be anything discernible by X ray. We'd have to have X rays done of you and then find a medical expert to testify that there should be some residual evidence of the trauma."
I brightened. "I'll go right to the hospital for X rays."
"Right," Beau said.
Monsieur Polk shook his head. "They might very well locate an expert who would claim X rays wouldn't pick up any residual damage if the problem was cured," he said. "Let me research the medical records at the hospital and get one of my doctor friends to give me an opinion about it first."
"Ruby had a child; Gisselle did not," Beau said. "Surely an examination . . ."
"Can you establish Gisselle did not beyond a doubt?" Monsieur Polk asked.
"Pardon?"
"Gisselle is dead and buried. How can we examine her? You'd have to have the body exhumed, and what if Gisselle had been pregnant sometime and had had an abortion?"
"He's right, Beau. I would never swear about that," I said.
"This is very bizarre. Very bizarre," Monsieur Polk muttered. "You worked at convincing people you were your twin sister and did it so well, everyone who knew her believed it, right?"
